Monday, June 06, 2011

Alu Potol er Dalna

Little S loves bandhakopir tarkari or cabbage sabzi. Only she calls it "Baba Kopi". This makes us laugh because "Baba"=Dad in Bengali.
She does not like Fulkopi or Cauliflower as much as "BabaKopi". Also she refers to Cauliflower as "White Broccoli".

And then she calls Swami Vivekananda -- Ferdinando.

Otherwise her Bengali is impeccable.

The Dalna in Bengali Cooking is a gravy dish where the gravy is thicker and richer unlike a jhol where the gravy is soupy and runny. For evey jhol there is an equivalent Dalna. So if there is a Alu-Kopir jhol there is the Alu-Fulkopir Dalna, for a Alu-Potol er Jhol there is an equivalent Alu-Potol er dalna, so on and so forth.

The Dalna can be Niramish, which means vegetarian with no onion or garlic or can be Aamish with not only onion and garlic but sometimes fish being added to it. Also almost always dalna has a phoron of Whole Garama Masala and is cooked in Ghee or White Oil but it might vary a little amongst families.

I made the Alu Potol er Dalna yesterday after years. Potol/Parwal or Pointed Gourd is a summer vegetable back home. No one pays much attention to it after first few days of its arrival in the summer market. After that it is just one more staple summer veggie.

Here Patol/Parwal is expensive, not in its best form and seen occasionally in the Indian Grocers. Me buying Patol is same as someone buying Celery sticks in the heat of Mumbai.Does not make a whole lot of sense except for making mundane Potol a very fancy vegetable for me and cooking it as a special Sunday meal.

I made a Niramish Alu Potol er Dalna, no onion to chop always tips the scale for me. We really enjoyed it with some Rice and for once did not miss the mandatory meat or fish that is on the Sunday lunch menu.

Chop the ends of the Potol/Parwal and then scrape the skin.Chop in halves. I had about 10 potol/parwal

Heat White Oil in a wok and fry the potol with a pinch of turmeric till they are a pale golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.

Heat some more Oil in the same wok

Temper the Oil with a pinch of Hing/Asafoetida(optional)1&1/2" tin stick of cinnamon1 small Bay Leaf4 small green cardamom4 clove2 Dry red Chili

When the spices sizzle add 1 medium potato peeled and chopped in quarters. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of Turmeric Powder and saute the potatoes until they start taking on a pale golden color

Take 2-3 peeled whole tomatoes from a can or 1 big juicy tomato and blend to make about 1/4 cup tomato puree. Add the tomato puree to the pan.Add 1 tbsp of grated Ginger OR 1 tsp of Ginger paste

Add a little salt and fry the tomato till the raw smell is gone. If you are not the smelling type, check to see if the oil is separating from the masala. This will take about 6-8 minutes at medium heat

Time for the masala.
Add1/2-3/4 tsp of fresh ground Corriander Powder +1/2-3/4 tsp of Roasted Cumin Powder 1/4-1/2 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch or Red Chili PowderNote: I roast corriander seeds and grind them to a fine powder. Ditto with Cumin Powder. My Ma however uses jeere bata or cumin paste in this recipe. You can do that too. I also use Kashmiri Mirch so use Red Chili Powder according to taste.

Sprinkle a little of the tomato juice or a little water and fry the spices for about 5 minutes. This is called "kashano" in Bengali or "bhuno" in Hindi and a lot depends on this step. You need to fry the masala till the oil surfaces and the masala takkes a deep red color. Don't try to hurry it. I have done that and there has been a difference in taste.

Add the lightly fried poto/parwal and gently mix everything together.

Add 1 cup of warm water. Add salt to taste. Cover and cook till potatoes are done. Potol/Parwal should be done by now. Remove the cover and reduce the gravy to your desired thickness.

Add about 1/4 tsp of sugar for an authentic Bengali taste.

Adjust for spiciness, add a little ghee and garam masala powder if you wish. Keep covered and serve hot with rice or chapati

53 comments:

Dear Sandeepa1st I am going to try this recipe on Fulkopi , then on the staple summer vegetable patol.I like it . I take note of using roasted coriander powder, which I have never used before. have a nice day

Dear SandeepaTomar boudi-ke ghum theke tul-e tomar pathano complement ta debo bhab-chhiam..suddenly good sense prevailed ..tai tomorrow morning..Most store bought spice powders have very less smell and taste. It is mainly because of dry grinding and over heating..Traditionally all spices were wet ground and there is no heating..so the flavor used to be great. Once in a while when I cook to reproduce some recipes of my Mom, I use wet ground spices..it makes lot of difference. I think I will also try roasted jeera powder and see how it tastes. Have a nice week Ushnishda

Potol kono din jomlona. Even as rui maacher dolma which Didu would make.

Thought I'll ask you the English name. Then I saw that you had put it. I could not pronounce "Phantom" as a kid when I was 7 and came to Calcutta. Used to read it in my mind as batman which I was familiar with in the UK

Now that i know a jhol from dalna...i always loved this curry with a peculiar peeling pattern in bengali families . Have tried it only once . You recipe makes me think of making it again.

FYI ..i grow a lot of celery here in Delhi and this is the only herb growing happily in my garden , all the others are snooty n demand a lot of care. Potol can also be grown successfully from stem cuttings , once it starts growing you can't tame it . Then you would have a lot of potol to make even the parval ki mithai .

i love potol, specially the ones you get just at the beginning of summer, which have very ten der seeds. the dalna looks lovely. i have made it a few times, though i went light on the dhone and very little aada bata. the pics taken by you s delicious. i can almost taste it. with rice it will be yummy. hand crushed tomatoes will give a better taste than puree i feel.

lovely and simple...here parwal is a staple vegetable and when u talk about it in vaillages they laugh at you as nobody spends money to buy them..it grows in their fence and it does not earn much respect...this gravy looks fantastic and I think we cna make dalna with any vegetable this way...I loved and laughed till my eyes filled reading your chalks and chopsticks post...excellent one :)

Patol is called Pointed Gourd in English though I doubt that any English-speaking human knows about this nomenclature :-)The oil can be lowered according to your pref. More definitely makes it a bit more tasty, would use more if cooking for guests or once-in-a-while lunch. For regular lunch/dinner I would go with less.

So many yummy and happy memories come back to me, as I read this post...Alu-potol is a simple Bangali pleasure, hard to beat :)

Also, I want to take this opportunity to present to you the 'Stylish Blogger Award' for all your mouth-watering recipes with attractive food photos. Details are here: http://sprigblossoms.blogspot.com/2011/06/stylish-blogger-award.html

Oh my gosh, I love the renaming of Swami Vivekananda as Ferdinando!! Thinking of this will give me a special extra pleasure next time I listen to our CD of the aroti (sp?) sung at the Sri Rama Krishna Temple. Funnily, in the intro to that CD, someone says that the songs give an insight into Vivekananda's personality, but the speaker was slowly relishing the word 'personality,' and my husband, mishearing it, said to me, "That's an odd phrase - Vivekananda's 'terse humanity!'" So now we know it is actually Ferdinando who has the terse humanity!

The aloo potol looks great. I hadn't had potol before our last trip to Kolkata, and I really liked it.

Hi Sandeepa! The CD is a recording from the evening service at Belur Moth temple. It's extremely nice - it is a cycle of songs composed by Vivekananda. They sing them at the Ramakrishna missions, with everyone participating and harmonium accompanying. I think ours is a copy from something of my father-in-law's - probably at Belur Moth they make the CD and he got it there and burned a copy for us. Maybe it is possible to find here too since Belur Moth is pretty famous?

I love your dalna......We cook the same way but have never put Dhone / coriander in it. Only cumin and ginger and ofcourse a little ghee and garam masala. Your anecdotes and recipes are fantastic. I enjoy reading them and feel like trying it out.

I would always fuss when ma made potol. Then when I went home for the first time after 2 years in grad school in the US, I stopped overnight at my cousin's place in Delhi. I was so delighted to eat potol bhaja that night. I mean I had missed potol. Who knew that was even possible!

Couldn't resist commenting here...today its thanksgiving in usa nd its a holiday fr everyone of us here... yesterday I got fresh potol in an indian store here...which I hardly see around..I entered the market..nd I ws like "o maa potol !!!" As if I had seen some uberly delicious rich food.... being in chennai fr 2yrs nd not getting proper potol made me crave it fr more....nd just aftr marriage coming here to usa has made me a potol maniac... so made potol er jhol today... I always love all your recipes nd all that u write about ur kids new pronunciations... btw where do u live in usa?? I am in chicago... I just wanted to have the same taste eof potol rr jhol that my Maa used to make...miss dat a lot..as she is no more..but alas..cudnt even near dat..nd seriously the spices in powdered form r really bogus in the stores..im hating them...will make powders at home only :-)

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Predominantly a Bong, who loves being a Mom and loves to cook among other things for the li'l one and the big ones.She loves to write too and you will find her food spiced up with stories. Mainly a collection of Bengali Recipes with other kinds thrown in, in good measure. A Snapshot of Bengali Cuisine